Standard text method, system, and program product for configuring and publishing text to multiple applications

ABSTRACT

The present provides a standard text method, system, and program product for configuring blocks of text and for defining the circumstances under which the blocks of text are to be displayed to users by multiple applications. The method comprises: providing a block of text to be published; selecting at least one application that will use the block of text; defining at least one business entity to which the block of text pertains; defining criteria under which the block of text will be used by each selected application; and repeating the above steps for each additional block of text to be published.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates in general to the publishing of text to anapplication. More particularly, the present invention provides astandard text method, system, and program product for configuring blocksof text and for defining the circumstances under which the blocks oftext are to be displayed to users by multiple applications.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Often, a block of text that is to be displayed to a user of anapplication must be generated or updated in some manner. For example, ina product procurement application that allows a requester to view andrequisition products listed in a catalog, a block of text may have to begenerated/updated to reflect a change to information associated with aproduct. Such a block of text may include, for example, a description ofthe product, a product safety message corresponding to the product, areturn policy for the product, information regarding sales restrictionson the product, etc. In addition, the generated/updated block of textmay be required for some instances of an application and not for others.This may occur, for example, if the generation/updating of a block oftext is limited to one or more locations, geographical areas, orcountries. Further, the generated/updated block of text may need to betranslated into another language, depending on the location of thecomputer on which the application is running.

The actual generation/updating of a block of text may be performed usingdifferent techniques, different personnel, different languages, etc.,typically resulting in new/different coding for each instance of theapplication. This makes the generation/updating of a block of textdifficult to support and maintain from a software point of view. Assuch, for these and other reasons, the generation/updating of blocks oftext for multiple applications within a business can be a daunting task,especially if the applications are running on computers located atdifferent sites around the world.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a standard text method, system, andprogram product for configuring blocks of text and for defining thecircumstances under which the blocks of text are to be displayed tousers by multiple applications.

A first aspect of the present invention provides a method forconfiguring and publishing text to multiple applications, comprising:providing a block of text to be published; selecting at least oneapplication that will use the block of text; defining at least onebusiness entity to which the block of text pertains; defining criteriaunder which the block of text will be used by each selected application;and repeating the above steps for each additional block of text to bepublished.

A second aspect of the present invention provides a system forconfiguring and publishing text to multiple applications, comprising: asystem for providing a plurality of blocks of text to be published; asystem for selecting at least one application that will use each blockof text; a system for defining at least one business entity to whicheach block of text pertains; and, a system for defining criteria underwhich each block of text will be used by each selected application.

A third aspect of the present invention provides a program productstored on a recordable medium for configuring and publishing text tomultiple applications, which when executed, comprises: program code forproviding a block of text to be published; program code for selecting atleast one application that will use the block of text; program code fordefining at least one business entity to which the block of textpertains; program code for defining criteria under which the block oftext will be used by each selected application; and program code forrepeating the above steps for each additional block of text to bepublished.

A fourth aspect of the present invention provides a system for deployingan application for configuring and publishing text to multipleapplications, comprising: a computer infrastructure being operable to:provide a plurality of blocks of text to be published; select at leastone application that will use each block of text; define at least onebusiness entity to which each block of text pertains; and, definecriteria under which each block of text will be used by each selectedapplication.

A fifth aspect of the present invention provides computer softwareembodied in a propagated signal for configuring and publishing text tomultiple applications, the computer software comprising instructions tocause a computer system to perform the following functions: provide aplurality of blocks of text to be published; select at least oneapplication that will use each block of text; define at least onebusiness entity to which each block of text pertains; and, definecriteria under which each block of text will be used by each selectedapplication.

Therefore, the present invention provides a standard text method,system, and program product for configuring a block of text and fordefining the circumstances under which the block of text is to bedisplayed to a user by an application.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features of this invention will be more readilyunderstood from the following detailed description of the variousaspects of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram illustrating publishing in accordance with thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 depicts a plurality of linked tables that may be used toimplement the present invention.

FIG. 3 depicts a computer system for configuring blocks of text and fordefining the circumstances under which the blocks of text are to bedisplayed to users by multiple applications in accordance with thepresent invention.

FIG. 4 depicts a flow diagram of the generation of entity keys inaccordance with the present invention.

FIG. 5 depicts a flow diagram illustrating the use of the entity keysstored in the published standard text table by an application.

It is noted that the drawings of the invention are not necessarily toscale. The drawings are merely schematic representations, not intendedto portray specific parameters of the invention. The drawings areintended to depict only typical embodiments of the invention, andtherefore should not be considered as limiting the scope of theinvention. In the drawings, like numbering represents like elements.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

As indicated above, the present invention provides a standard textmethod, system, and program product for configuring blocks of text andfor defining the circumstances under which the blocks of text are to bedisplayed to users by multiple applications. The Standard Text functionprovided by the present invention allows administrators to enterconfigurable blocks of text and then publish the blocks of text to theappropriate business entity for the appropriate application.

In the context of the present invention, as illustrated in FIG. 1, theterm ‘publish’ comprises: (Step S1) providing a block of text; (Step S2)selecting at least one application instance that will use the block oftext; (Step S3) defining at least one business entity to which the blockof text pertains; and (Step S4) defining the criteria under which theblock of text will be used by each selected application instance. Forexample, assume that a specific product safety message is to bepublished to a requisitioning application based on a requester'scountry. The application which then reads the product safety messagewill conditionally present this message to the requester based on thecountry to which it was published. Thus, when publishing, anadministrator must select one of the messages that have been defined,select an instance of the requisitioning application, and then selectfrom a list of countries.

The present invention provides centralized configuration of myriadbusiness entities for a plurality of applications. Although describedbelow with regard to product procurement applications, it will beapparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention can beused in conjunction with any type of application. In addition, it willbe apparent to one skilled in the art that many different types ofbusiness entities are possible in addition to those described below.

Business entities can be shared across multiple applications, or theymay be used in only one application, but shared across multipleinstances of that application. Business entities common to multipleapplications may comprise, for example, country code, company code,vendor information, commodity code, approver type, etc. Applicationspecific news (uptimes, procedure changes, or new features) is anexample of a business entity that supports only one application, but canbe shared across multiple instances of that application. Applicationsmay be separated into multiple instances for many reasons including, forexample, support for different time zones or high transactional volumes.While some business entities may be simple, such as country code andcompany code, other business entities may be more complex and comprise acombination of more than one business entity. For example, the businessentity “company” may comprise a combination of the business entities“country code” and “company code.” Another example of a complex businessentity, described in greater detail below, is the business entity“cat-comp-appr,” which comprises a combination of the business entities“catalog code,” “company code,” and “approver type/level.” A block oftext associated with the business entity “cat-comp-appr,” would apply toone unique catalog, within a single company code, with a specificapprover type.

Referring now to FIG. 2, there is illustrated a data model 10 comprisinga plurality of relational database tables for implementing the presentinvention. The tables include a publishing entity table 12, a standardtext type table 14, a standard text table 16, a standard text languagetable 18, a standard text publisher table 20, an entity builder 22, anda published standard text table 24. It is assumed for the purposes ofthis description that the reader has an understanding of relationaldatabases commensurate with one skilled in the art. Accordingly, adetailed description of relational databases is not provided herein.

The publishing entity table 12 stores information regarding eachbusiness entity. For example, the name 26 and a description 28 of eachbusiness entity can be stored in the publishing entity table 14. Otherinformation regarding each business entity can also be included in thepublishing entity table 14. Each business entity can be defined, forexample, by an administrator of the system.

The standard text type table 14 contains a plurality of standard texttypes 30. In accordance with the present invention, a standard text type30 can be anything from a news article, to a country-specific definitionof a term (such as what criteria define a “capital purchase”), to headerinformation that will be placed in a system-generated email, etc. Itwill be apparent to one skilled in the art that many other standard texttypes 28 are also possible. The standard text types can be defined, forexample, by an administrator of the system.

Each standard text type 30 is associated with a business entity storedin the publishing entity table 12, as described above. The name 26 ofthe business entity is used to link a standard text type 30 stored inthe standard text type table 14 to a business entity stored in thepublishing entity table 12.

Additional attributes of each standard text type 30 can also stored inthe standard text type table 14. For example, the technology 32 of eachstandard text type 30 can be provided. The technology 32 of a standardtext type 30 can include a wide variety of technical information, suchas whether the standard text type 30 comprises flat text, HyperTextMarkup Language (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), or a UniformResource Locator (URL). Publishing characteristics can also beassociated with each standard text type 30. Examples of publishingcharacteristics can include the date range 34 during which the standardtext type 30 is valid, edit control 36 for indicating whether thestandard text type 30 can be edited once it has been published,description control 38 indicating whether additional description of thestandard text type 30 is required, and multiple publishing control 40for indicating whether multiples can be published to the same businessentity (e.g., true for news articles, false for definition of a capitalpurchase). Other attributes are also possible, and should not be limitedby the examples detailed above.

The standard text table 16 and standard text language table 18 are alinked pair of tables which hold all the configured blocks of text thatcan be published. Each block of text in the standard text table 16includes a standard text ID 42, which is used to identify and access theblock of text, and a standard text type 30, which associates the blockof text with one of the standard text types defined in the standard texttype table 14. The standard text table 16 can also include other typesof information regarding each block of text stored therein. The blocksof text can be provided by an administrator of the system (e.g., via akeyboard) or using any other suitable method.

The standard text language table 18 holds one or more translations ofeach block of text stored in the standard text table 16. Each translatedblock of text has the same standard text ID 42 and standard type code 30as the parent block of text in the standard text table 16, and includesa language code 44 indicating the language of translation.

In the disclosure above, the mechanisms for defining business entities,for defining types of standard text, and for providing blocks of text(and translations thereof) have been described. At this point, themechanism for publishing specific standard text types to specificbusiness entities will be described. This is where the standard textpublisher table 20 and the entity builder 22 come into play.

The standard text publisher table 20 provides an access and securitymechanism that defines what roles can publish what types of standardtext in what applications 70. For example, an administrator in AccountsPayable is not responsible for defining the term “capital purchase,” andtherefore cannot publish that definition to any of the applications thatmay use it. However, Accounts Payable is responsible for the content ofemails to a user regarding confirmation of goods received, and so theAccounts Payable administrator does have the ability to publish headersand footers for those emails. These types of relationships are definedby the entries in the standard text publisher table 20. In particular,each entry in the standard text publisher 20 includes an applicationsystem ID 46, which identifies a particular application 70, a role 48,which indicates a particular role that is authorized to publish to theapplication 70 identified by the application system ID 46, and astandard text type 30, which references one of the standard text typesdefined in the standard text type table 14.

The entity builder 22 is used to determine what other data tables 52 inthe system comprise each business entity stored in the publishing entitytable 12. The business entity of “country” is a simple case, a physicalentity, where the only table that is needed to devise a publishing keyis a table of country codes. However, the more complex example of thebusiness entity “cat-comp-appr,” which comprises a combination of thebusiness entities “catalog code,” “company code,” and “approvertype/level,” is a relational entity joining three separate businessentities into one key. Rather than expecting an administrator to knowhow to build the appropriate key for publishing a particular block oftext, the entity builder 22 is used to drive the administrator to builda key in the expected format. To this extent, the entity builder 22provides the sequence 54 of business entities in the order they shouldbe presented and stored, and the necessary Structured Query Language(SQL) queries that will build choice lists for the business entities,from which the administrator will select. The choice lists are builtusing algo text 56 (e.g., a large string of XML) stored in the entitybuilder 22. The selected values of the business entities comprise anentity key 60 that is stored in the published standard text table 24. Itshould be noted that multiple instances of each business entity in thechoice list can be selected to generate a plurality of distinct entitykeys. The generation of the Structured Query Language (SQL) queries forbuilding the choice lists is within the purview of one skilled in theart to which this invention pertains, and will not be presented indetail herein.

The end result is the published standard text table 24. In addition tothe standard text type 30 and standard text ID 42, each entry in thepublished standard text table 24 contains an entity key 60, whichcomprises specific values of the business entities, separated by aseparator character, and the application instance 62 to which the entitykey 60 is intended to be published. The entity builder 22 can be used inparsing the entity key 60, when the published standard text table 24 isbeing read, to determine whether the first value in the key correspondsto the first sequence number of the entity builder 22. Additionally, thepublished standard text table 24 contains an attribute that allows theapplications certain additional control over how they use the providedtext item. This attribute is configured by the administrator, and canprovide certain “canned” usage methods that govern how any particulartext item should be used within its particular “publishing context.” Anexample of this is “display once per session” where a particularapplication can be configured to show particular text items the firsttime the condition is encountered, or every time. The published standardtext table 24 may also include date range information 64 correspondingto the entity key 60.

The following example more clearly demonstrates an illustrative sequenceof events in accordance with the present invention:

1) A business entity of cat-comp-appr is defined (e.g., by anadministrator), which indicates that a particular block of text willapply to one unique catalog, within a single company code, to a specificapprover type. Information regarding the business entity ofcat-comp-appr is stored in the publishing entity table 12.

2) A standard text type 30 of a catalog message to an approver isdefined by an administrator. This message is intended to be presented toan approver of a specific type when a requisition being approvedcontains items from a specific catalog and the requester belongs to aspecific company code. Information regarding the standard text type 30of a catalog message is stored in the standard text type table 14.

3) An administrator authors the message that is to be displayed. Itshould be noted that the administrator who authored the message to bedisplayed may or may not be the same administrator who defined thebusiness entity of cat-comp-appr and/or the administrator who definedthe standard text type of a catalog message. Translations can also becreated, if required. When the message is saved, it is assigned a uniqueidentifier that is used in both the standard text table 16 and thestandard text language table 18.

4) The standard text publisher 20 indicates that catalog messages to anapprover are to be published only by country administrators.

5) A country administrator who is responsible for publishing certaintypes of messages logs onto an administration application and selectsthe function to publish standard text. The country administrator ispresented a list of standard text types, which the country administratoris authorized to publish, and the country administrator selects theentry for catalog message to an approver.

6) The business entity for cat-comp-appr has four parts: the uniquecatalog identifier, which is made up of two pieces of data (the sourcesystem of the catalog and the catalog identifier); the company code,which is also made up of two pieces of data (the owning country code andthe company code); the approver type code, such as a management approveror a financial approver; and the approver level (e.g., there may be morethan one approver of a single type on a request).

7) The entity builder 22 builds and presents to the countryadministrator four selection boxes, representing each of the fourbusiness entities that make up the cat-comp-appr business entity.Furthermore, since this is a country administrator who is restricted toadministering data for only one country, the list of company codes isrestricted (e.g., “filtered”) to only those companies that are in hiscountry. The country administrator then selects a single value from eachof these four selection boxes and the entity builder builds the uniqueentity key 60. Information regarding the entity key 60 is stored in thepublished standard text table 24.

8) The published standard text table 24 now contains an entry with thestandard text type 30 for catalog message to approver, the uniquestandard text ID 42 for the message, and an entity key 60 that may looksomething like this:

-   -   ERP1˜USSTAP100˜M˜US˜001˜1        This entity key 60 states that the message that was authored in        item (3) above should only be displayed to a first level (“1”)        manager (“M”) when the requester is in the “US” for a company        code “001,” and when the requisition contains an item from the        catalog “USSTAP100” which came from source system “ERP1.”

9) Now it becomes the responsibility of the requisitioning application70 to read the published standard text table 24. To do this, therequisitioning application 70 first pulls information out of a givenrequisition to generate its own entity key. For example, from datawithin the requisition, the requisitioning application is able todetermine the source system of the catalog, the catalog identifier, theowning country code, and the company code. Further, the requisitioningapplication 70 already knows which approver type/level is looking at therequisition. Based on this data, the requisitioning applicationgenerates an entity key and then determines if there is a matchingentity key 60 in the published standard text table 24. If so, thepublished message in the standard text table 16 or standard textlanguage table 18 corresponding to the matching entity key 60 ispresented to the approver of the requisition using the standard texttechnology 32 set forth in the corresponding standard text type 30. Thegeneration of an entity key by an application and the determining of amatching entity key 60 in the published standard text table 24 can betriggered within the application in a number of ways. For example, thisprocess may occur any time data is to be presented to auser/administrator of an application, or in response to predeterminedapplication specific trigger events.

Referring now to FIG. 3, there is illustrated a computer system 100 forconfiguring blocks of text and for defining the circumstances underwhich the blocks of text are to be displayed to users by multipleapplications in accordance with the present invention. Computer system100 is intended to represent any type of computerized system capable ofimplementing the present invention. For example, computer system 100 maycomprise a desktop computer, laptop, workstation, server, PDA, cellularphone, pager, etc.

Data used in the practice of the present invention may be stored locallyto computer system 100 in a storage unit 102, and/or may be provided tocomputer system 100 over a network 104. Storage unit 102 can be anysystem capable of providing storage for information under the presentinvention. As such, storage unit 102 may reside at a single physicallocation, comprising one or more types of data storage, or may bedistributed across a plurality of physical systems in various forms. Inanother embodiment, storage unit 102 may be distributed across, forexample, a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN) or astorage area network (SAN) (not shown). Regardless, the various tablesused in the practice of the present invention, namely, the publishingentity table 12, standard text type table 14, standard text table 16,standard text language table 18, standard text publisher table 20,entity builder 22, and published standard text table 24, can be storedin storage unit 102. Other tables 52 of data required for the practiceof the present invention can also be stored in storage unit 102.

Network 104 is intended to represent any type of network over which datacan be transmitted. For example, network 104 can include the Internet, awide area network (WAN), a local area network (LAN), a virtual privatenetwork (VPN), a WiFi network, or other type of network. To this extent,communication can occur via a direct hardwired connection or via anaddressable connection in a client-server (or server-server) environmentthat may utilize any combination of wireline and/or wirelesstransmission methods. In the case of the latter, the server and clientmay utilize conventional network connectivity, such as Token Ring,Ethernet, WiFi or other conventional communications standards. Where theclient communicates with the server via the Internet, connectivity couldbe provided by conventional TCP/IP sockets-based protocol. In thisinstance, the client would utilize an Internet service provider toestablish connectivity to the server.

As shown, computer system 100 generally includes a central processingunit (CPU) 106, memory 108, bus 110, input/output (I/O) interfaces 112and external devices/resources 114. CPU 106 may comprise a singleprocessing unit, or may be distributed across one or more processingunits in one or more locations, e.g., on a client and server. Memory 108may comprise any known type of data storage and/or transmission media,including magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM),read-only memory (ROM), etc. Moreover, similar to CPU 106, memory 108may reside at a single physical location, comprising one or more typesof data storage, or be distributed across a plurality of physicalsystems in various forms.

I/O interfaces 112 may comprise any system for exchanging informationto/from an external source. External devices/resources 114 may compriseany known type of external device, including speakers, a CRT, LEDscreen, handheld device, keyboard, mouse, voice recognition system,speech output system, printer, monitor/display, facsimile, pager, etc.In FIG. 3, for example, information 116 (e.g., blocks of text, choicelists, etc.) is displayed on a monitor/display 120 to an administrator118.

Bus 110 provides a communication link between each of the components incomputer system 100, and likewise may comprise any known type oftransmission link, including electrical, optical, wireless, etc. Inaddition, although not shown, additional components, such as cachememory, communication systems, system software, etc., may beincorporated into computer system 100.

Shown in memory 108 is a publishing system 200, which allows one or moreadministrators 118 (only one is shown for clarity) to configure blocksof text to be published and to define the circumstances under which theblocks of text are to be displayed to users by multiple applications inaccordance with the present invention. The publishing system 200includes a text system 202 (e.g., a word processor or other text editor)for generating blocks of text and translations thereof (if required) foruse in the standard text table 16 and standard text language table 18.The publishing system 200 also includes an entity system 204 for settingup the business entities stored in the publishing entity table 12, andfor generating entity keys 60 via the entity builder 22. Anadministration system 206 is also provided in the publishing system 200.The administration system 206 generates the standard text types 16stored in the standard text type table 14, defines the circumstancesunder which blocks of text are to be displayed to users by multipleapplications (e.g., via the standard text publisher table 20), generatesthe entries stored in the published standard text table 24, and performsother administrative functions that may be required in the practice ofthe present invention. The publishing system 200, including text system202, entity system 204, and administration system 206, can be providedas program products.

Also depicted in FIG. 3 are a plurality of applications 300.Applications 300 may comprise any type of application that is capable ofdisplaying text, messages, etc., to a user/administrator. Applications300 can run on one or more different computer systems, includingcomputer system 100, and can be connected to computer system 100 vianetwork 104.

Each application 300 can read the published standard text table 24stored in the storage unit 102 of computer system 100 to determine if ablock of text is to be published to the application. To do this, eachapplication 70 generates its own entity key from information availableto the application 300, and then determines if there is a matchingentity key 60 in the published standard text table 24. If so, a block oftext in the standard text table 16 or standard text language table 18corresponding to the matching entity key 60 is published to auser/administrator of the application 300.

A flow diagram of the generation of entity keys 60 in accordance withthe present invention is illustrated in FIG. 4. In step S1, at least onebusiness entity is defined and stored in the publishing entity table 12.In step S2, at least one standard text type is defined and stored in thestandard text type table 14. In step S3, at least one block of text tobe published is authored (or provided in any other suitable manner) andstored in the standard text table 16. In step S4, one or moretranslations (if necessary) of each block of text authored in step S3 isprovided and stored in the standard text language table 18. In step S5,the criteria under which each block of text stored in the standard texttable 16 and standard text language table 18 is to be published isdefined, based on information in the standard text publisher table 20.In step S6, choice lists are generated and presented to an administratorby the entity builder 22 for each business entity stored in thepublishing entity table 12. In step S7, the administrator chooses asingle value from each of choice lists presented by the entity builder22 and the entity builder 22 builds a unique entity key 60 based on theadministrator's choices. In step S8, the entity key 60 is stored in thepublished standard text table 24, along with all necessary information(e.g., standard text type 30, standard text ID 42, etc.) for publishinga corresponding block of text. It will be apparent to one skilled in theart that many of the above steps can be performed in a different orderthan that illustrated in FIG. 4. For example, blocks of text can beauthored and stored before or after the definition of the businessentities and before or after the defining of standard text types.

A flow diagram illustrating the use of the entity keys 60 stored in thepublished standard text table 24 by an application is illustrated inFIG. 5. In step S1, an application generates an entity key based oninformation available to the application. In step S2, the applicationdetermines if the entity key generated by the application matches anentity key 60 stored in the published standard text table 24. If a matchis found, the block of text in the standard text table 16 or standardtext language table 18 corresponding to the matching entity key 60 isaccessed and presented in step S3 to a user/administrator of theapplication using the standard text technology 32 set forth in thecorresponding standard text type 30.

It should be appreciated that the teachings of the present inventioncould be offered as a business method on a subscription or fee basis.For example, computer system 100 could be created, maintained and/ordeployed by a service provider that offers the functions describedherein for customers. That is, a service provider could be used toconfigure blocks of text and to define the circumstances under which theblocks of text are to be displayed to users by multiple applications asdescribe above. It should also be understood that the present inventioncan be realized in hardware, software, a propagated signal, or anycombination thereof. Any kind of computer/server system(s)—or otherapparatus adapted for carrying out the methods described herein—issuited. A typical combination of hardware and software could be ageneral purpose computer system with a computer program that, whenloaded and executed, carries out the respective methods describedherein. Alternatively, a specific use computer, containing specializedhardware for carrying out one or more of the functional tasks of theinvention, could be utilized. The present invention can also be embeddedin a computer program product or a propagated signal, which comprisesall the respective features enabling the implementation of the methodsdescribed herein, and which—when loaded in a computer system—is able tocarry out these methods. Computer program, propagate signal, softwareprogram, program, or software, in the present context mean anyexpression, in any language, code or notation, of a set of instructionsintended to cause a system having an information processing capabilityto perform a particular function either directly or after either or bothof the following: (a) conversion to another language, code or notation;and/or (b) reproduction in a different material form.

The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of this inventionhas been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It isnot intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the preciseform disclosed, and obviously, many modifications and variations arepossible. Such modifications and variations that may be apparent to aperson skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scopeof this invention as defined by the accompanying claims.

1. A method for configuring and publishing text to multipleapplications, comprising: providing a block of text to be published;selecting at least one application that will use the block of text;defining at least one business entity to which the block of textpertains; defining criteria under which the block of text will be usedby each selected application; and repeating the above steps for eachadditional block of text to be published.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein providing a block of text to be published comprises: authoringthe block of text; storing the block of text in a standard text table;providing at least one translation of the block of text, if required;and storing each translation of the block of text in a standard texttranslation table, wherein each translation of the block of text storedin the standard text translation table is linked to the block of textstored in the standard text table.
 3. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: defining at least one standard text type; storing eachstandard text type in a standard text type table; and linking the blockof text to a standard text type stored in the standard text type table.4. The method of claim 3, wherein each standard text type comprises: astandard text technology; and publishing characteristics.
 5. The methodof claim 4, wherein the standard text technology is selected from thegroup consisting of flat text, HyperText Markup Language (HTML),Extensible Markup Language (XLM), and a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).6. The method of claim 4, wherein the publishing characteristicscomprise at least one of: date range; edit control information;description requirement; and multiple publication control information.7. The method of claim 1, wherein each business entity can be shared bya plurality of different applications, and wherein each business entitycan be used by a single application, but shared across multipleinstances of the single application.
 8. The method of claim 1, whereineach business entity can comprise a combination of other businessentities.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein defining at least onebusiness entity further comprises: storing each business entity in apublishing entity table.
 10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:generating, using an entity builder, an entity key required to publishthe block of text, wherein the entity builder is linked to thepublishing entity table.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein generatingan entity key comprises: providing a choice list for each businessentity to which the block of text pertains, wherein each choice listcomprises at least one specific instance of the corresponding businessentity; selecting an instance of each business entity from each choicelist; building the entity key based on the selected instance of eachbusiness entity; and storing the entity key in a published standard texttable.
 12. The method of claim 11, further comprising: matching a keydefined by an application against the entity keys stored in thepublished standard text table; and publishing the block of textassociated with the matching key to the application.
 13. The method ofclaim 12, wherein publishing the block of text associated with thematching key comprises: identifying the block of text that is associatedwith the matching key; retrieving the identified block of text;identifying a standard text type of the block of text; and identifyingthe application to which the block of text is to be published.
 14. Asystem for configuring and publishing text to multiple applications,comprising: a system for providing a plurality of blocks of text to bepublished; a system for selecting at least one application that will useeach block of text; a system for defining at least one business entityto which each block of text pertains; and, a system for definingcriteria under which each block of text will be used by each selectedapplication.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein the system forproviding a plurality of blocks of text to be published comprises: asystem for authoring each block of text; a system for storing each blockof text in a standard text table; a system for providing at least onetranslation of each block of text, if required; and a system for storingeach translation in a standard text translation table, wherein eachtranslation stored in the standard text translation table is linked toone of the blocks of text stored in the standard text table.
 16. Thesystem of claim 14, further comprising: a system for defining at leastone standard text type, and for storing each standard text type in astandard text type table, wherein each block of text is linked to astandard text type stored in the standard text type table.
 17. Thesystem of claim 16, wherein each standard text type comprises: astandard text technology; and publishing characteristics.
 18. The systemof claim 14, wherein each business entity can be shared by a pluralityof different applications, and wherein each business entity can be usedby a single application, but shared across multiple instances of thesingle application.
 19. The system of claim 14, wherein each businessentity can comprise a combination of other business entities.
 20. Thesystem of claim 19, further comprising: an entity builder for generatingan entity key required to publish the block of text, wherein the entitybuilder is linked to a publishing entity table for storing the businessentities.
 21. The system of claim 20, wherein the system for generatingan entity key comprises: a system for providing a choice list for eachbusiness entity to which the block of text pertains, wherein each choicelist comprises at least one specific instance of the correspondingbusiness entity; a system for selecting an instance of each businessentity from each choice list; a system for building the entity key basedon the selected instance of each business entity; and a publishedstandard text table for storing the entity key.
 22. The system of claim21, further comprising: a system for matching a key defined by anapplication against the entity keys stored in the published standardtext table; and a system for publishing the block of text associatedwith the matching key to the application.
 23. A program product storedon a recordable medium for configuring and publishing text to multipleapplications, which when executed, comprises: program code for providinga block of text to be published; program code for selecting at least oneapplication that will use the block of text; program code for definingat least one business entity to which the block of text pertains;program code for defining criteria under which the block of text will beused by each selected application; and program code for repeating theabove steps for each additional block of text to be published.
 24. Theprogram product of claim 23, wherein the program code for providing ablock of text to be published comprises: program code for authoring theblock of text; program code for storing the block of text in a standardtext table; program code for providing at least one translation of theblock of text, if required; and program code for storing eachtranslation of the block of text in a standard text translation table,wherein each translation of the block of text stored in the standardtext translation table is linked to the block of text stored in thestandard text table.
 25. The program product of claim 23, furthercomprising: program code for defining at least one standard text type;program code for storing each standard text type in a standard text typetable; and program code for linking the block of text to a standard texttype stored in the standard text type table.
 26. The program product ofclaim 25, wherein each standard text type comprises: a standard texttechnology; and publishing characteristics.
 27. The program product ofclaim 26, wherein the standard text technology is selected from thegroup consisting of flat text, HyperText Markup Language (HTML),Extensible Markup Language (XLM), and a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).28. The program product of claim 26, wherein the publishingcharacteristics comprise at least one of: date range; edit controlinformation; description requirement; and multiple publication controlinformation.
 29. The program product of claim 23, wherein each businessentity can be shared by a plurality of different applications, andwherein each business entity can be used by a single application, butshared across multiple instances of the single application.
 30. Theprogram product of claim 23, wherein each business entity can comprise acombination of other business entities.
 31. The program product of claim30, wherein the program code for defining at least one business entityfurther comprises: program code for storing each business entity in apublishing entity table.
 32. The program product of claim 31, furthercomprising: program code for generating, using an entity builder, anentity key required to publish the block of text, wherein the entitybuilder is linked to the publishing entity table.
 33. The programproduct of claim 32, wherein generating an entity key comprises: programcode for providing a choice list for each business entity to which theblock of text pertains, wherein each choice list comprises at least onespecific instance of the corresponding business entity; program code forselecting an instance of each business entity from each choice list;program code for building the entity key based on the selected instanceof each business entity; and program code for storing the entity key ina published standard text table.
 34. The program product of claim 33,further comprising: program code for matching a key defined by anapplication against the entity keys stored in the published standardtext table; and program code for publishing the block of text associatedwith the matching key to the application.
 35. The program product ofclaim 34, wherein publishing the block of text associated with thematching key comprises: program code for identifying the block of textthat is associated with the matching key; program code for retrievingthe identified block of text; program code for identifying a standardtext type of the block of text; and program code for identifying theapplication to which the block of text is to be published.
 36. A systemfor deploying an application for configuring and publishing text tomultiple applications, comprising: a computer infrastructure beingoperable to: provide a plurality of blocks of text to be published;select at least one application that will use each block of text; defineat least one business entity to which each block of text pertains; and,define criteria under which each block of text will be used by eachselected application.
 37. Computer software embodied in a propagatedsignal for configuring and publishing text to multiple applications, thecomputer software comprising instructions to cause a computer system toperform the following functions: provide a plurality of blocks of textto be published; select at least one application that will use eachblock of text; define at least one business entity to which each blockof text pertains; and, define criteria under which each block of textwill be used by each selected application.